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The International Monetary Fund cut its forecasts for growth in 2012 on Tuesday and warned of a possible deepening downturn in Europe. Revising an earlier forecast, the IMF predicted that the global economy will expand 3.3%, this year, down from 3.8% last year and lower than the 4% growth it had forecast last September. “The world recovery, which was weak in the first place, is in danger of stalling,” IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard said. “But there is an even greater danger, namely that the European crisis intensifies. In...

Escalating tensions with Iran have pushed the cost of crude oil higher as fears mount that a 1970s-style jump in the oil price could send both Eastern and Western economies into recession. Iran's threat to cut off access to the Strait of Hormuz – through which 40pc of the world's oil is shipped – has provoked an angry rebuke from the US, which has the Fifth Fleet nearby. Today, French foreign minister Alain Juppe supported the American hard line with Tehran, and urged European leaders to impose an embargo on Iranian oil exports...